Lance Armstrong threatened to sue Chael Sonnen for remarks Sonnen made about the cycling star two years ago, Sonnen said on Jim Rome’s radio show Monday.

Sonnen, the UFC’s most famous antagonist, said Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs and “gave himself cancer” in an interview with Pro MMA Radio back in 2010 before his first fight with middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Sonnen told Rome on Monday that Armstrong’s people contacted him with the threat of a lawsuit at that time.

Armstrong was in the news last week for his interview with Oprah Winfrey, where he admitted to the use of performance-enhancing drugs and blood doping to help him win seven Tour de France titles. He has since been stripped of those championships by cycling’s governing body.

“Why would you need steroids to do something that my 6-year-old niece does up and down the driveway every day?” Sonnen quipped.

Furthering what he has become known for, Sonnen continued the verbal assault on Armstrong.

“Why are they calling him a bully?” the UFC fighter said. “That’s what I can’t wrap my brain around. Lance is a dweeb. The only thing he’s missing is the tape on the glasses and the high-water pants. This guy couldn’t get respect in the local honky tonk in my hometown.”

Sonnen was on Rome promoting the season premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter” on Tuesday night (FX, 8 p.m.). He’ll be coaching teams of prospective UFC fighters opposite light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who he challenges April 27 in Newark at UFC 159.

Although Sonnen and Jones have traded vicious barbs since the summer, Sonnen was kind to his rival on Rome.

“I thought after going through the experience with Jon that he did a very good job,” he said. “I thought he was sincere in wanting to see his guys do well.”

Sonnen even had some goodwill for Armstrong. Sort of.

“Lance did some bad stuff,” he said. “He was a jerk about it. But how do you persecute a guy who never failed a test?”